The Vegetarian Combination at Red Sea 47, a New Ethiopian Restaurant in Hell's Kitchen

The vegetarian special at Red Sea 47 offers six spectacular dishes in an analog clock formation. (Click on picture for spectacular enlargement.)

Ethiopian restaurants around town have always provided excellent opportunities for vegetarians, but not vegans, due to the clarified butter used in some of the recipes.

Red Sea 47 is a new addition to the city's collection of Ethiopians, and a good one. In addition to a handful of dishes never seen before, there's an excellent vegetarian special ($13.95) that offers six dishes displayed on a layer of the fermented flatbread called injera, which is made from a millet-like grain called teff. Teff is currently being grown in the United States.

You get extra injera rolled up like napkins along with the combination, and can ask for more if you run out. That makes it possible to share one vegetarian combination between two diners.

Many of the dishes are based on lentils, and others on steamed vegetables. Clockwise from the 12 o'clock position, the dishes include shiro (based on chick peas), collard greens, tikil gomen (cabbage and potatoes), miser wat (spicy lentils), miser alecha (mild lentils), with a chopped salad in the middle. There are an additional two vegetarian dishes that can be ordered separately, if this doesn't look like food enough for two. 683 Ninth Avenue, 212-956-2841